G-League Finals Recap

If there ever was a final series worthy of the tournament, this was it. The winners of The International 2012, Invictus Gaming going up against the young team of LGD.Int to decided who would be the victors of the biggest online event in Dota 2 history, the G-League finals!

iG got a strong trade right off the Bat, as they traded a Batrider pick for LGD.Int in order to pick up Keeper of the Light and Nyx Assassin for themselves. The big surprise of the draft coming out of Rasmus 'Misery' Fillipsen was a Crystal Maiden secondary support.

While iG settled in for very safe lanes, LGD.Int put Per Anders 'Pajkatt' Olsson Lille up top as a surprising offlane Lifestealer, giving Braxton 'Brax' Paulson the solo safelane with Batrider as both of the LGD.Int supports set out for their customary roam.

While it seemed at first as if Misery and Theeban '1437' Siva would not find anything, as their attempted ganks on Luo 'Ferrari_430' Feichi's Queen of Pain in middle lane failed to connect, they ultimately ended up scoring the first blood on a rotation into the top lane jungle.

However as Misery gave up some deaths in the jungle, the balanced started to tip, as iG took on a more aggressor role between the two. While some kills were scored going back and forth, generally for the first 20 minutes both teams showed great map awareness, avoiding unfavourable fights.

The turning point came at 22 minutes, as LGD.Int got a bit too aggressive under the sight of iG's well placed ward, which ended up resulting in a 4-0 fight going the way of iG at bottom lane. As Chen 'Zhou' Yao on Phantom Lancer also lead the way in

From this point on, momentum shifted more and more in favour of iG, who pressued LGD.Int back into their base. At 33 minutes iG picked up an Aegis of Immortality for Zhou, and as they were moving through their own jungle they managed to find 3 kills, forcing LGD.Int to admit that the game was out of their reach and their base would soon fall, prompting them to call the 'GG' at 34 minutes.

LGD.Int looked to reverse their fortunes in the second game, wanting to shut down the safelane carry of iG by sending Brax on Sven along with Keeper of the Light and Rubick to the long lane to face off with the iG trilane. However what they found there was not Zhou's Lone Druid, but the Lifestealer of Jiang 'YYF' Cen along with his supporting Lion and Jakiro.

The Lifestealer ended up hurting LGD.Int greatly, as his Rage effectively crushed all hopes of the offensive trilane getting meaningful kills. In addition, Zhou was farming his mind out, destroying Pajkatts Weaver up top. Seeing the writing on the wall, 1437 started the rotation up top, but a lucky entangle by the Spirit Bear on Weaver allowed what LGD.Int needed to be a kill on Zhou to turn around, instead donating the first blood to the Lone Druid.

Trying their hand at bot instead, LGD.Int got caught out by iG's counter-initiation, giving up 3 deaths for claiming only 1 kill. Worsening the situation Zhou soloed up 1437 at the top lane. Once they respawned LGD.Int were however able to redeem themselves a little bit, claiming a 2 for 1 trade as well as the first Tower of the game at bottom lane.

Ferrari making the big plays at 14 minutes in, managing to hit a 3 hero Reverse Polarity on top lane, punishing LGD.Int for their 4 man push down to the tier 2 Tower. In the following pursuit iG claimed a further Keeper of the Light as well.

Not even two minutes later Ferrari hit another 4 man Reverse Polarity in mid lane, as he looked to stake his claim to secure his second MVP in two games.

As things started looking too far gone in favour of iG, LGD.Int showed some signs of life with a clutch stun by Brax on Ferrari after yet another Reverse Polarity initiation. On the back of a good fight LGD.Int tried to take Roshan, but were forced to back off before finishing him off, with neither team wanting to take a fight in the Roshan Pit.

After picking up an Aegis of Immortality on YYF, iG pushed down mid lane, and Ferrari was able to find the by now expected big Reverse Polarity at 28 minutes, claiming 4 lives and setting iG in front by 20 to 7 kills. As iG continued to push they ultimately claimed the Melee Barracks in mid before backing off.

But the respite was only an illusion, as they returned shortly and did not hold up this time until the throne went down at 33 minutes of play. iG were looking unstoppable with a 2-0 lead.

Slightly unconventionally it was iG and not LGD.Int who claimed the early Chen pick-up, which promped the response Enchantress from LGD.Int. This meant that Chuan 'Chuan' Wong Hock as well as Misery would have their respective jungler with which to try and control the flow of the early game.

Once again Zhou took up his Lone Druid, heading for the solo offlane, while sending YYF with his Lifestealer to the safelane. However this time around LGD.Int chose not to challenge, instead sending Brax up top with his Weaver while Pajkatt took a Lycanthrope to the safelane.

At 1 minute in Misery sniped off the Dire Courier with a Dark Troll Summoner creep as it was on it's way to Ferrari with his Bottle, setting the iG mid back a bit. Two minutes later Chuan took chase after Brax through the Dire jungle, claiming first blood. The junglers were showing their early game impact right from the start.

Early pushes at bottom lane by LGD.Int allowed them to pressure down the tier 2 tower at 5minutes, but against all odds, Zhou claimed the denial on the tower with his Spirit Bear. Soon after with the mid lane tier 1 falling, LGD.Int rotated top, picked off Zeng 'Faith' Hongda with Primal Roar and pushed down the top lane tier 1, but as before Zhou was there to deny the tower from under the nose of LGD.Int.

While iG were slightly on the back foot, smart playes denied LGD.Int openings for kills, instead seeing iG finding the pick-off's. As Pajkatt also played slightly timid, he failed to capitalize on openings for him to create havoc away from the bulk of his team. Starting to feel desperate after giving up so many early kills, LGD.Int tried to force a Roshan at 18 minutes, but as the teamfight broke out they were forced out, allowing Zhou to claim the Aegis of Immortality. The early advantage of LGD.Int was now well and truly gone.

As iG had started to feel confident, all it took was a slight overextension forced out by the split push of LGD.Int for their confidence to be punished, as LGD.Int claimed a 3-0 right outside of their own mid tier 2 tower, signaling an opening for a reversal once more of the fortunes of the two teams.

After a few more pick-off's here and there, iG had found enough space on their side of the map to use their Dire Roshan advantage to claim a swift Aegis of Immortality at 30 minutes for Zhou. This would lead into an engagement at the top lane jungle, with the odds looking favourable for iG.

But no! LGD.Int ran all over iG in the following teamfight, just as they had earlier on in middle lane, claiming four kills for nothing and also killing Zhou's Lone Druid twice. With iG down for the count, LGD.Int used their immense pushing power to demolish the top lane set of Barracks, before rotating to middle lane, where they killed off the respawning iG players one by one.

As the third lane of Barracks fell, iG admitted defeat for the first time in this series at 32 minutes in.

Pajkatt on Syllabear took the early cs lead against YYF's Batrider, but as he stuck around a bit too long he ended up taking too many stacks of Sticky Napalm, allowing YYF to claim the first blood at 3 minutes into the fourth game.

An intiation by iG on the bottom lane ended up turning around as Juggernaut went round and round and never slowed down, right in the face of Zhou's Phantom Lancer, claiming the kill for Dire and country.

At 13 minutes iG got caught out with Ferrari a bit too far in front, allowing LGD.Int to claim 2 and another 1 on the chase. As they stick around to take the tower, iG came back in to find a 3-for-2 exchange on the back end of the extended teamfight with the help of Chuan's Epicenter.

When you're fighting and winning, keep on fighting. LGD.Int presurred bottom tier 1, claiming a quick few kills and forcing Zhou back to base. As Ferrari tried to counter-initiate on the badly hurt LGD.Int lineup he ended up instead forfeiting his life, which lead God to go on a mad chase after the last of retreating iG, ultimately ending up overextending and donating both his and Pajkatts life and allowing Zhou to calmly clain the denial on the bottom tier 1.

At 18 minutes LGD.Int went for Roshan, and iG dared not fight it, instead giving over the Aegis of Immortality to Lone Druid for no real trades. Following this Faith got picked off at 21 minutes on iG's side of river but nothing really amounts from it.

After some further maneuvering LGD.Int grouped up to push down the tier 2 Tower at top lane, which prompted iG to recall in Zhou who had been sneeking in some me-time up in the Dire jungle. Chuan threw away a rare airball of an Epicenter as well as YYF wasting a Batrider Flaming Lasso, which allowed LGD.Int to claim a free tier 2 at top before falling back.

Zhou got caught out at 25minutes on bottom lane and ended up giving his life while receiving only that of Shadow Demon in trade. LGD.Int however chose to back off afterwards, preparing their map control for the next Roshan.

As iG tried to push up the top lane, LGD.Int in turn pushed the bottom lane up to the tier 3, forcing out the Teleports and securing them an easy Roshan at 28 minutes and another Aegis of Immortality for Pajkatt's Lone Druid. This allowed LGD.Int to take the fight next at bottom lane, claiming a free Sandking as Misery saved the life of Sergey 'God' Bragin with a clutch Disruption before backing off in order to regroup. Ultimately the defense from iG along with the buyback from Chuan was too strong, and LGD.Int decided to back off to farm the jungle for just a second, allowing Pajkatt to finish up his Pipe of Insight.

As they returned to bottom lane they finally claimed the Tier 3, but iG's counter-initiation was a just a bit too much, as their assault was routed and iG were able to claim some hard fought kills on the chase. Unwilling to give it up, LGD.Int came back again after they had respawned, but with a poorly timed Pipe of Insight and God getting caught out by YYF, two easy kills went the way of iG, forcing LGD.Int all the way back to the Dire side tier 2, where another fight broke out going iG's way 4 for 2. LGD.Int no longer seemed to have an answer for Zhou's Phantom Lancer with a Heart of Tarrasque.

Lategame is lategame. Buybacks for all.
Original image by gDAnother of Reddit

When in doubt, get a Roshan. LGD.Int claimed their third Aegis of Immortality for the Lone Druid at 39 minutes, hoping to be able to last through the initial damage of the iG team. However this amounted to very little, as they in a last ditch attempt to make good on their opening smoked up at 44 minutes on the bottom lane, however failing to get iG to take the bait.

At 50 minutes YYF was again looking for an initiation at mid, but a good Shadow Poison by Misery scouted him out. As iG backed off LGD.Int smoked up and swung around, catching iG out at the bottom lane and claiming the life of Phantom Lancer and two of his friends for the price of two supports. Zhou quickly bought back in order to deny LGD.Int the opening to go for Roshan, forcing both teams to stand back once more.

At 55 minutes LGD.Int were able to claim yet another Aegis of Immortality, along with their second Cheese. With Aegis on Lone Druid and Cheese on both Juggernaut and Nyx Assassin, LGD.Int tried to find the opening to push at bottom lane, but too many Phantom Lancers denied entry into iG's base.

A full 10 minutes passed without either team finding an opening, and as Roshan came up again, this time Zhou was there to snipe him off, claiming the Aegis of Immortality for himself as well as the Cheese for Ferrari. This gave them the confidence to bring the pressure to LGD.Int's base, and two minutes later the Phantom Lancer's overwhelmed the top lane tier 3 tower, opening it up for YYF to snipe off God's Nyx Assassin at mid. A quick buyback denied iG anything further, but the timer was on as Zhou would just keep on sending in illusions against the naked Barracks of LGD.Int.

God found a stray Chuan at the bottom lane, and along with 1437 they nearly claimed his life, but a clutch Ghost Scepter allowed the Sandking to skitter off. Meanwhile Misery gave his life at top lane, but still the Barracks stood. Because he clearly wasn't tanky enough, Zhou got a second Heart of Tarrasque. The status quo remained.

74 minutes the top melee Barracks as well as the mid lane of Barracks finally fell due to a unfortunate commitment by LGD.Int at bottom lane, but as LGD.Int chased iG into the woods around the Ancients they managed to claim a few crucial kills. As the iG players lacked buybacks LGD.Int countered by rushing down mid lane, claiming the counter barracks and rotating top, even getting the better trade as two full lanes of barracks fell as opposed to the one and a half iG had taken down.

At 77 minutes iG was back up and managed to claim another Aegis of Immortality, but with Phantom Lancer maxed out it would instead go to YYF's Batrider, with the double Cheese being taken by Ferrari on Night Stalker. This in turn lead to a bottom lane push, which saw iG clear off the remaining Barracks at the tail end of several buybacks.

IG so far flawless in executing standard line ups and strategies. LGD.int still lacks the skill to execute some risky strategies, but definitely has the potential to become better. Congrats on both teams.

IG so far flawless in executing standard line ups and strategies. LGD.int still lacks the skill to execute some risky strategies, but definitely has the potential to become better. Congrats on both teams.

[quote=GGAvant]Need to find a way to counter CANCER.. this cancer makes all sort of problems late game even if u win early game n mid game.[/quote]
INVOKER ! or force it before! Na'Vi showed so many times that they don't care about that Lancer ! they will win it before he even gets a quarter of a heart!

GGAvant wrote:Need to find a way to counter CANCER.. this cancer makes all sort of problems late game even if u win early game n mid game.

INVOKER ! or force it before! Na'Vi showed so many times that they don't care about that Lancer ! they will win it before he even gets a quarter of a heart!

I STILL BELIEVE PAJKATT could have chosen radiance over DAEDALUS so that SK and BATRIDER cant initiate because of the RADIANCE BURN also, GOD lack the item he needs to either burst down a support or stay on the team fight, meka was not a good choice.. they also LACK AOE heroes and or ITEMS.. which sux.. another point would be that there are lapses with decision making on LGD.INTs side, they did the same failed RAX attempt on BOT over and over again on several occasions.. ALL IN ALL they did good.. it just probably boils down to decision making and experience that's why IG won.. congrats to both TEAMS.. thank you for the good games..

I STILL BELIEVE PAJKATT could have chosen radiance over DAEDALUS so that SK and BATRIDER cant initiate because of the RADIANCE BURN also, GOD lack the item he needs to either burst down a support or stay on the team fight, meka was not a good choice.. they also LACK AOE heroes and or ITEMS.. which sux.. another point would be that there are lapses with decision making on LGD.INTs side, they did the same failed RAX attempt on BOT over and over again on several occasions.. ALL IN ALL they did good.. it just probably boils down to decision making and experience that's why IG won.. congrats to both TEAMS.. thank you for the good games..

[quote=xgraciel]Just early push heroes like lonedruid , furion , kotl will fcked cancer lancer.
gyro..
i was thinking if magnus is good counter to him.[/quote]
1: your english sucks
2: how will that stop him? allowing him to farm safely at his tier3 tower ? seems legit

xgraciel wrote:Just early push heroes like lonedruid , furion , kotl will fcked cancer lancer.
gyro..
i was thinking if magnus is good counter to him.

1: your english sucks
2: how will that stop him? allowing him to farm safely at his tier3 tower ? seems legit

Hopefully IceFraud will nerf Magnus, Pl, Kotl, Gyro, Bat, Ds, Nyx, Wisp, Naix for TI3. The games will be pretty retarded otherwise. Game 4 had such an epic potential but it ended so anticlimatic with 4.2 trash pushing safe from afar. Illusions should deal 0 dmg to buildings, this is ridiculous

Hopefully IceFraud will nerf Magnus, Pl, Kotl, Gyro, Bat, Ds, Nyx, Wisp, Naix for TI3. The games will be pretty retarded otherwise. Game 4 had such an epic potential but it ended so anticlimatic with 4.2 trash pushing safe from afar. Illusions should deal 0 dmg to buildings, this is ridiculous